Wayne Bennett has broken his silence and gone against the trend of coaches being displeased about the NRL's decision to cut back to one referee and bring back the six-again rule.
โIf it was left to the coaches today, we wouldnโt have State of Origin.โ Bennett toldย The Daily Telegraph.ย
With fears that the new rule changes could potentially tear the fabric of the game and ruin the game completely this year, Bennett actually praised Peter Vโlandys and the ARL Commission for attempting to make the game more entertaining and stopping the slow tactics that can make fans irate
โIt will be 40 years of Origin this year but when it started in 1980 the coaches and certain club administrators didnโt want it,โ Bennett said.
โBut (then QRL boss) Ron McAuliffe and (then NSWRL boss) Kevin Humphreys stood up to everybody and I admired them for it.
โNow Origin is the pinnacle of our game and we are starting to see it now with Vโlandys and the Commission that they are showing that they are strong enough to back their opinions.โ
Bennett also said coaches were showing their displeasure with the rule changes โbecause they want controlโ, but believes clubs only concern should be โif you commit the crimeโ.
โIโm not fazed about it one little bit,โ Bennett said.
โI have worked all my life to try and minimise the penalty count. Nothing has changed for me.
โCoaches understand that the consequences are going to be much greater than they have been in the past because the infringements are going to hurt big time. For coaches that is the scary part. My team is vulnerable, too.
โBut it is not something to fear in my mind because it is in the best interests of the game. I believe it will make it a better game. There will be more ball in play and that is the bottom line.
โThe reality is there have been a lot of fan complaints throughout the last decade about the way the game has changed and the slowness of it in terms of the tackle and the wrestle, and it hasnโt gone away.
โBut now the consequences will be even greater if you are going to go down that path because you are going to be doing multiple sets of six, and you are going to find more guys in the sin bin. But there is nothing to fear if you are not breaking the rules.
โThey are just going to enforce what we have allowed to creep into our game and put us in a situation where I donโt believe the game is as entertaining as it should be.
โI donโt believe having the second referee for the past decade has made a major difference.
โWe have still got issues that havenโt gone away and those issues are the ruck, the play-the-ball speed and the wrestle. That is something you just canโt dispute.โ
Although some critics were in favour of the one referee and not the six-again rule, Bennett believes the two must go together.
โOne referee would not have worked without the six-to-go call,โ he said.
โBut they were smart enough to realise that if they went forward with one referee they couldnโt afford to give away 30 penalties per game, so they have given the refs tools to work with.
โIt might not be what the coaches want but it is what the administrators want and, more importantly, what the fans want.
โI canโt believe all this hysteria. The biggest penalty grabber going back to that other era in the 1980s and long before was the scrums. Teams would do anything they could to get two points (from a penalty conversion).
โThen they introduced the differential penalty where you couldnโt kick a goal and we got on with life. Whatโs the big deal here?
โWhen Peter Vโlandys got the job as chairman I remember reading that he wanted a game that was fast and open and could be enjoyed by the fans. That is what he is trying to create.
โI applaud the commission for being strong enough as administrators to take the game in a direction that they believe will be more entertaining.
โWe are in the entertainment business and if we lose sight of that then we wonโt have the fan base we have and we wonโt have the income that employs so many people.โ
